Men's Basketball | 3/10/2022 9:36:00 AM

MOORHEAD, Minn. – The statistic is staggering: 314-86.

During the Minnesota State University Moorhead men's basketball team's eight-game winning streak, which was highlighted by the Dragons winning their first Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference/Sanford Health Tournament on March 1, MSUM's bench has outscored its opposition by that margin.

"We are really coming together," MSUM junior guard Trever Kaiser said. "We've been working a lot in the gym. We put our heads down and worked harder. It seems like we have a crazy chemistry right now."

MSUM (19-11) opens NCAA Central Region Tournament play on Saturday against No. 10 Northwest Missouri State at noon at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D.
Kaiser is one of the Dragons providing a lift off the bench during the eight-game winning streak, one that has carried them to the NCAA tournament for the sixth time in Chad Walthall's 12-year tenure. That group also includes junior guard Bryce Irsfeld, senior forward Gatdoar Kueth, freshman guard Jacob Beeninga and sophomore forward Dane Zimmer.

"The strength of this team the past two months has been the commitment to defend, rebound, but most importantly to each other," Walthall said. "Our bench is every bit as important to our team's success as our starters.  We feel confident in whoever is playing that they are more than capable to complete the task while always receiving support from the rest of the team."

"We almost have like 8-10 starters," Kueth said. "There's no let off the whole time. Everybody plays with the confidence of a starter, but we all know our roles at the same time."

Here are the games during the eight-game winning streak, and how the Dragon bench has outscored the foes:
St. Cloud State 17-3
Bemidji State 28-17
Minnesota Crookston 33-25
UMary 57-9
Minot State 61-17
St. Cloud State (NSIC tourney) 43-6
Augustana (NSIC tourney) 29-4
Minnesota Duluth (NSIC tourney) 46-5

"It's huge for us," Beeninga said. "It's a spark we can bring that a lot of teams can't match…the second halves, we've come out strong in those, wearing teams down with our depth."

"It's been the most fun I've had playing basketball," Kueth said. "It feels like we're doing what we should be doing. We're playing to our potential."

During the winning streak, Kueth is averaging 10.3 points per game, Beeninga is at 10.0 (six games played), Zimmer is at 8.1 and Kaiser is at 8.0. 

Saturday's game against No. 10 Northwest Missouri State will be the third straight nationally-ranked opponent MSUM has faced in the past 10 days.

"We're confident," Beeninga said. "Momentum is only momentum if you carry it forward. We have a lot of confidence going into this and we're at a really good comfort level."

"The confidence is really high," Kueth said. "We're really focused, too. We're staying locked in one game at a time. It eels like we're doing one game at a time, we finish it and we're on to the next one. Focus is a big thing we have right now."

"Everyone has found their role," Kaiser said. "and we're ready to go."